Middle East conflict - Media manipulation and misinformation complex
My interview with CGTN's Sr. International Editor Abhishek G. Bhaya
Editor's note: The Israel-Palestine conflict is once again at the center of global attention, and the role of Western media in shaping public perception and opinion about this protracted struggle is under scrutiny. The Israeli government and the Palestinian leadership, each backed by their respective echo chambers, present their own version of events and perspectives. However, the role of a large section of Western media in this context often becomes a point of contention, as some argue that it has not always provided a fair and objective portrayal of the situation. To delve into this topic, CGTN's Sr. International Editor Abhishek G. Bhaya spoke with Damascus, Syria-based British independent investigative journalist Vanessa Beeley, who has worked extensively in the Middle East and reported from conflict zones in Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Palestine, and Yemen. The views expressed in the video are her own and not necessarily those of CGTN.
The video interview is in the link here.
Edited excerpts:
CGTN: How do you perceive the coverage of the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict in Western media?
Vanessa Beeley: What we've seen consistently for the last 20 years is the protection of a Western ally in the region in West Asia, which is the Israeli settlers. They are predominantly governed by a Zionist far-right extremist government that two weeks ago the media was describing as far-right and extremist and warning of an eruption from the Palestinians because of the amount of persecution, provocation being carried out by the government including the continued siege of the Gaza Strip – a strip of land 40 kilometers by 12 kilometers – which is effectively a concentration camp.
The media was warning of this upcoming insurgence, and then when it happened, suddenly we see them describing it as "unprovoked" and condemning the Palestinian resistance and framing the operation as a “terror attack.” So, it's very clear to me that what we see now is an ongoing connection between the media and Western and Israeli foreign policy.
CGTN: A large section of the Western media has been accused of being biased and, at times, even running a propaganda campaign, to suit a one-sided narrative. Can you share your insights into the root causes of this media bias and the spread of disinformation in these conflict zones in the Middle East?
Vanessa Beeley: Not only the media, we have an entire misinformation complex that is working to justify globalist aggression, led by the U.S., the UK and the EU, and their various alliances globally. Therefore, the media is no longer speaking truth to power, it is protecting power from truth.
If we go back to the first Iraq invasion, we saw the incubator story that justified in Western public perception the need for an invasion. We saw for example, in Libya, the Benghazi rape stories. In Afghanistan, the West entered Afghanistan to protect women's rights. Look at Afghanistan now, where are women's rights?
If we look at the second invasion and the obliteration of much of Iraq and the colonization of Iraq, that was on the basis of [allegations of Iraq possessing] Weapons of Mass Destruction, which is a proven discredited story. But that doesn't matter, the media basically erase any challenge to the dominant narrative in order to serve American foreign policy.
In Syria, we have the [allegations of] Weapons of Mass Destruction, which are the chemical attacks, all of which have been vociferously debunked by analysts, including the Douma chemical attack in 2018. However, the context is completely obfuscated by the legacy media in the West in order to protect globalist ambitions and globalist agendas.
CGTN: In the current conflict, we also saw how a horrific and unsubstantiated claim by apparently a random Israeli soldier accusing Hamas of beheading children went viral, with even U.S. President Joe Biden amplifying the fake news. The White House had to issue a clarification later. What do you make of this incident in particular? And do you notice a pattern in such disinformation campaign?
Vanessa Beeley: Oh, absolutely. The thing is that all of these narratives were pushed out by mainstream media very early on, in the first 24 hours of operation. And what they actually are designed to do is to force people to rush to judgment. So, almost immediately, they lay the foundations of the narrative. So, they lay the foundations that Hamas is a terrorist organization that is beheading babies, raping women, killing innocent party goers, etc.
And then only after time do we receive the retractions, but the retractions are very muted compared to the amplification of the initial vilifying narratives against one faction. And of course, the baby [beheading] narrative was retracted, the rape narrative was retracted. But none of this context is given. As I said, when a story is retracted, that retraction is not amplified. So, what happens is that initial propaganda gathers traction and remains in people's consciousness. They remain in public consciousness because the media is not there to educate, the media is there to manipulate.
CGTN: In the same line, we also saw two contradictory claims on the Gaza Baptist Hospital bombing that killed hundreds of civilians including children. Rather than backing just one side, shouldn't the U.S. and the West be demanding an international inquiry into the heinous attack?
Vanessa Beeley: Absolutely, of course they should. You know, whenever they enter into a conflict, either by proxy or directly, since the Iraq war in 2003, the U.S. has been less inclined to put its own boots on the ground, it has been inclined to use its terrorist proxies.
And we have a very similar situation with the Baptist Hospital story. even mainstream media initially were saying it's not possible that it could be a Palestinian missile, it wouldn't cause this much damage and these many casualties, and we know that the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) has previously bombed hospitals in every single aggression against the Gaza enclave. I mean, even [Hananya] Naftali (a prominent pro-Israel influencer) took responsibility for Israel bombing the area around the hospital. And then suddenly we started to see a switch.
But again, we've seen this in every previous Israeli aggression. The media creates enough confusion and gets everybody arguing over who has responsibility. And in that way, they distract from the other atrocities that Israel is committing under the cover of this international argument that's going on in the media and in the so-called international community.
This is a very familiar tactic both by Israel and by the West, and supported by the alliance media. These days, I don't see the media as an independent entity in the West. It has connections to the intelligence agencies, to the security agencies and to the government. And as I said, it is basically completely controlled by those agencies.
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